A Favour From the God of War
by HecateA
Summary: Mars and Pluto think of their relationship as mutually beneficial—and after watching his son on the battlefield, Mars decides to pull some strings so that someone else can see it too. Oneshot. Tyrant's Tomb spoilers.


**Author's note: **_Oh my gosh _The Tyrant's Tomb _was so good. What. The. Heck. _This came to me as I was reading and being put through an emotional rollercoaster if there ever was one (so naturally spoilers will ensue). Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **Everything belongs to Rick Riordan, I'm just here crying.

**Warnings: **NA

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**A Favour From the God of War **

The heat engulfed Frank until he couldn't tell if he'd acclimated to the pain or if the flames and the explosion had damaged his body so badly so quickly that he couldn't feel the burning.

That wasn't surprising. He had known what he was doing when he had the legionnaires prepare the Caldecott tunnel. He had known what he was doing.

Finally the heat made sense when he found himself standing in the Fields of Mars at camp, under a blazing sun whose heat he'd only known after moving down to California. The tall grass tickled his fingers and wrists, even more so when a breeze came through. Something about this—the quietude, the weather, the colours around him—felt uncanny…

"Baby," he heard someone say.

He spun around and his jaw dropped when he saw Mom. She was wearing the camouflage pants and boots of a soldier, but her jacket was tied around her waist. The black tank top she wore underneath and the way her hair fell made her look more casual and relaxed than she did all the other times that he'd seen her in uniform. She looked composed and fresh, too. As if she'd been resting.

"Mom," he managed to choke out. Mum didn't wait for any more words from him before she rushed towards him, throwing her arms around his neck. She had to stand on her tip-toes to hug him now. It bothered him that she hadn't seen him grow, suddenly.

"Mom," he said again, closing his eyes. This felt more like a prayer than anything he'd ever told the gods.

"My sweet boy," Mom said. She backed down but kept a hand on Frank's soldier. "Oh, baby… look at how you've grown."

"I did," Frank nodded.

"And you've become so strong," she said. "So brave, so clever, so bold, so responsible… all the things you had in you just burst out."

"Yeah," Frank said. He swallowed hard and nodded. "I did it all to make you proud, Mom. Everything I did, I think I was supposed to pray to my father but I always asked myself what you would do—on the quests, when I was training new recruits, in the tunnel…"

"Shh," Mom said, running her other hand up and down his shoulder. She shook her head. "You've done well. So well. But falling on a bomb to save your fellows isn't a part of my legacy you're set to repeat," Mom said. "Nor should you."

"Mom, I'm…" he looked around him, concerned. "I'm dead… I did it already, I had to. Apollo—long story, umm…"

"No," Mom said, shaking her head. "You burned the stick that Juno left us."

"Which was tied to my life force," Frank said.

"Which was tied to _a _life," Mom said. "A preordained life you turned away when you risked taking your destiny in your own hands."

"So I'm not dead?" Frank asked, looking at his hands.

"Well, you hurt yourself rather badly," Mom said, eyebrows knit in concern. "Don't get me wrong. But you're still alive up there."

"So how come I get to see you?" Frank asked.

"Your father works quite closely with Lord Pluto—they mutually fuel each other's realms, after all… I suspect that a favour was called in to give us a chance to say goodbye," Mom said.

He swallowed, hard. It felt stupid and silly, and of course this should be the best news he would ever receive, but he couldn't help but flashback to all those times he and Grandma would drive Mum to the airport or hug her goodbye as she got on some kind of bus whenever she was deployed. He always knew it was coming and he knew it was the right thing, but it always felt… bitter. Wrong. Letting go of a hug from his mom was always the absolute worst, but this time he knew for a fact—not just as a nightmarish possibility—that she wouldn't be…

"You have things left to do," Mom said. "A life left to live. You may have an education, a career, hobbies, adventures, trips, a family, a great love story... although I hear you have one of those in the works right now."

Frank felt himself blushed and Mom laughed.

"There's gossip in Elysium?" Frank asked.

"Tons of it," Mom smiled. "She sounds lovely. She sounds like she deserves you."

Frank blushed again. Mom squeezed his hands.

"Go back to her," she said. "To your life, to your future, to the things you want to do, the things you have to do because you're you, to the things you haven't found yet…"

"I will," Frank said. Suddenly he felt woozy and disoriented, as if a roller coaster had gone still for a second and all of the ride's momentum and a build-up of vertigo caught up to him. He felt less connected to the world than before. Perhaps he was waking up. "I'll… I'll do it all for you."

"No baby, do it for yourself," Mom said.

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**Stacked with: **MC4A; Shipping Wars; Fall Bingo

**Representation(s): **Wise Seaweed; Brush; Seeds; Tissue Warning; Mountain Dwellers; Old Shoes; Themes & Things A (Family); Themes & Things B (Reunion); Advice From the Mug; Ethnic & Present; Neurodivergent; True Colours; Rian-Russo Inversion (Y); In a Flash

**Word Count: ** 833

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_**Shipping Wars**_

**Ship (Team): **Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang (Shifting Stones)

**List (Prompt): **Fall Micro 2 (Death)

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_**Summer Bingo**_

**Space Address (Prompt): **5B (Death)


End file.
